Tag Archives: web 2.0

Complete Guide to Google Wave, First Edition Has Shipped

Kelly Abbott | March 12, 2010 - 6:51 pm

Complete Guide to Google Wave, First Edition

The champagne has popped. The ship has sailed. We’re done.

What have we done?

  • 195 pages of writing with full-color illustration and pics
  • A printed and eBook version
  • A free online version

The Complete Guide to Google Wave book, which we published as a 90-page preview edition back at the end of November, is now all grown up. We added two new chapters, completely re-wrote some old ones, incorporated reader feedback, added tons more pics, and now offer not only online and in PDF but also as a print edition.

It’s been five months since we began production for this project. We’ve sold over 1,200 copies of the preview edition (look for the free upgrade to the First Edition, for you early customers, via email). We’ve had millions of visitors to the site and countless thousands of tweets, re-tweets and blog posts. And we’re still the first book on Google Wave to hit the shelves.

But that’s not the best part. The best part is being recognized by the guys at Google who started it all. Lars and Jens, who are the brains behind Google Wave (and before that, Google Maps), are fans of ours too. Lars even wrote the forward for the First Edition.

What are you waiting for? Buy now…

You can read more about the publishing backstory here.

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Sterling on Web 2.0

Kelly Abbott | March 7, 2009 - 9:03 pm

Link: Why Bruce Sterling Hates Web 2.0

Bruce Sterling is always thought-provoking and critical of group-think. And rightly so. While I don’t agree completely with Sterling’s recent laments about Web 2.0, nor do I side with the critics. Regardless, it’s worth some time watching his keynote and being challenged whatever camp you come from. By the very nature of our business, we tend to get stuck thinking and preaching the same old things to the same old people. It’s nice to have an iconoclast out there showing us life through the lens of contrition.

I love this gem:

I imagine myself as a completely senile old man wandering around saying, “Do I need to water this plant? Uhh, where are my keys?” And my plant tells me when to water it, and the house tells me where my keys are and I think, “Gee this isn’t so bad! I’m really happy.”

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